I'm back with a few more recent moments in my daughter's journey towards literacy (and hopefully towards the love of books). She'll be four in about 2 months, and she is developing a few early literacy skills. These days she is:
Appreciating new formats: We read Herve Tullet's Press Here together for the first time the other night. I learned that Press Here is actually not the best bedtime book. It is too exciting and interactive. But my daughter adores it! I also discovered that Press Here is even better than I thought it was when I reviewed it a couple of years ago. By mid-way through the book on our first reading, my daughter could anticipate what the book was going to ask her to do next, and was eager to do it. She was excited and engaged, and couldn't wait to read the book again with my husband. That is a successful book. Baby Bookworm's take: "This is a really crazy book!" (said with admiration).
Making Connections between Books and Life: On her first wearing of a new dress received from Nana, my daughter said: "I love it already." Then she laughed. "Just like Penny." She was, of course, referencing Penny and Her Doll, by Kevin Henkes. Penny receives a new doll from her grandmother, and says right away: "I love it already."
Playing with Language: after reading Cool Dog, School Dog by Deborah Heiligman and Tim Bowers, my daughter wanted to make up her own rhymes in the same rhyming scheme ("Tinka is a fun dog, / a sun dog, / a run-and run-and-run dog."). Her results were not eloquent, perhaps, but I liked that she understood that there was a scheme, and wanted to try to follow it. I wish I had written some of them down.
Acting Out Books: We regularly act out scenes from Bonny Becker and Kady MacDonald Denton's Bear and Mouse books, and add our own Bear and Mouse scenes. She's pretty good at channeling Bear.
Learning New Vocabulary (Painlessly): I mentioned that it was drizzling as we drove to school the other day, and asked her if she knew what the word "drizzle" meant. She said, "Of course. Brother and Sister were at school one day and they couldn't play outside because it was drizzling." She was clearly referring to some Berenstain Bears story, though I don't know which one. She talks about Brother and Sister Bear as though they are people she knows.
Assessing and Recommending Books: She just came in to show me the book that her babysitter had read to her, The Berenstain Bears Come Clean for School, a new selection from the library. She flipped it open to tell me what happened on the last page (something involving everyone washing their hands), and pronounced "It's pretty funny. Did you hear me laughing?"
Recognizing Authors: The other night my daughter said, pointing to the stack of books we had selected: "I want to read the Mo Willems book, Mom." I'm not at all surprised that Mo is the first author that she recognizes. He does a nice job of linking his books together. (The Pigeon makes cameos in other books, for instance.) This particular title was an Elephant & Piggie book, Elephants Cannot Dance.
My conclusion from tracking these little book-filled moments is this: the path to literacy can be an awfully fun place. Thanks for sharing it with us!
© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook. This site is an Amazon affiliate.
